Capitalism isn't the "best system we've got", though... it isn't even the system we are all using right now.
We've never operated in anything like a "purely" capitalist economy, and the socialist policies most western countries have put in place are wildly popular and few people would want to live without them.
Countries that intelligently choose when and where and what things should be operated on a capitalist basis, have better outcomes.
Healthcare? Not something anyone should make money off of. Basic housing, food, water, power... these should be immune to market forces.
At the same time, capitalism drives fantastic technological and social innovation within its swimlane. We just have to pre-define what things people should be able to make money doing.
Child repeating what their parents and society has told them.
Vs.
Adult who has started to live the reality.
That’s because those people are always assuming they will be living capitalism from the CEO’S perspective after school. never from the worker’s perspective.
In my experience, the people who work retail and food service are more likely to favor socialism and collective action. But not all of them, of course.
The people who justify capitalism tend to work in higher paid office or managerial jobs. Not all of them, of course, as I am an example, and as are the ton of lower paid office workers that hate their jobs.
Turns out, the people for whom capitalism worked out, tend to like it. Those being crushed by the weight of unsustainable consumption tend to hate it. Go figure.
I don't like to think that I or we really can't imagine a better system but I don't think it's completely unrealistic to say something like best we got. I say this only because things like communism and all their promises can only really come about through a revolution and the price in blood is jaw dropping. So much killing. It also almost certainly means people materially worse off for a long time if not the rest of their lives in the wake of this revolution even if over generations it manages to eventually deliver.
I'm all for substantial reform and leftist/liberal politics but it's difficult for me to ignore the great peril and huge gamble of revolution. Some times a society successfully manages to make things so bad that there's so little to lose that it can seem a realistic option but I think everybody considering that option should weigh it very carefully. It's very possible to sacrifice everything including your own life and thousands of others' only for the whole thing to get derailed by opportunists and to make a bad situation so much worse.
I've thought about this a lot. I wonder if a good compromise would be a requirement for maybe 10-20% of all issued and outstanding shares of publicly traded companies to be owned by non-officer employees. It doesn't even have to be given away freely. They could be sold to employees and/or given as part of their total comp. Just enough to get a seat on the board elected by them. Seems reasonable.
#'#I'm14aandthisisdeep'
Image Transcription:
Wojak in a bow tie with the text 'Adolescent people defending capitalism as "the best system we got"
Depressed wojak wearing a MacDonald's employee hat, with the text 'Those same people after just a few years of experiencing the capitalist job market'
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I feel personally attacked.
Yeah it would be far better to... what exactly?
I mean... I fucking hate it, but I haven't seen anything better actually in practice yet. Pretty words on paper, maybe, but not in fucking reality.
The problem with suggesting that capitalism isnt the best system is in its contrary. If I suggest someone name me a great socialist state nobody is going to say Laos, Vietnam or Cuba. You can ask someone from those places and they would say they would rather be in the US or EU than in their home country. So why the constant larp?
Haha where's the panel for the communist work camps? The people there would kill for a job flipping burgers.
Also life pro-tip: Fast food is and never was supposed to be a career. If that's the only way you can find a job, that's no one's fault but yours.
Capitalism has it's flaws but still better than communism.
